This invention relates to text processing and display systems. More particularly, it relates to text processing and display systems utilizing storage means which are sequentially accessible and store coded data representations of the displayed characters in a sequence of storage positions spatially corresponding to the positions of said characters in the block of alphanumeric material being displayed.
The preparation of modern business documents often involves typing and editing several drafts of the document before it is complete, correct, and presented in a format that is both readily understandable and aesthetically pleasing to the eye of the reader. The steps of preparing a final printed copy of a document often entail: (1) Typing a rough draft from raw data, dictation equipment, or notes; (2) deletions, insertions, rearrangement and corrections by an editor; (3) retyping, using the edited rough draft as a source of information; (4) reediting to insure correctness and to insure aesthetic perfection; (5) retyping as necessitated by step (4) reediting to insure correctness of the final copy.
As can be seen from the above, each time information is typed, it must be reread and perhaps edited to insure that it is correct, and each time that it is edited, it must be retyped. This process is extremely time consuming inasmuch as the secretary's time is lost in retyping while the editor's time is lost in reediting.
Several devices have been proposed and utilized which shorten the amount of time lost in retyping and reediting business documents. A traditional prior art approach has been to record the characters typed on a secondary medium such as a magnetic medium which is selectively utilized by the typist to control the typewriter so that it will automatically printout the information contained in the first draft together with any subsequent editing changes. In recent years this traditional approach is being replaced by text processing systems utilizing cathode ray tubes (CRT) displays or like displays which display information keyed into the text processing system of an associated input terminal such as the keyboard. The input information is displayed and corrections to the displayed data may be made by the operator. Such corrections would of course include entry of new data, deletion of existing data, or insertion of new data.
Presently available self-contained text processing systems contain the control electronics required to effect data editing in the CRT display utilizing the keyboard. These text editing systems generally have their own bulk storage wherein the characters to be displayed are stored in some convenient form. Once the information content being displayed is believed to be correct, data in the bulk storage is transmitted to a central microprocessor which then controls the printout of the information on any standard printer. While presently available text processing equipment handles the editing of letters and standard book pages which have a full paragraph sequential format, the art is interested in the development of improved systems for the effective handling of full page text material having a plurality of columns. Similarly there is a need for text processing systems which have the capability of selectively designating sections of subblocks of the displayed data and completely changing the format of the selected section of displayed alphanumeric data as well as shifting such designated sections of displayed data to another portion of a page or even to another page. In other words, there appears to be a need for effective systems for text processing involving columnar operations and/or business graphics.
While there are presently existing text processing and display systems having the capability of arranging data in a preselected form columnar format and to then affect some changes in the margins and spacing of the columns, the prior art has not provided effective text processing and display systems wherein any section of a displayed page or block of alphanumeric character may be directly defined and then that section reformatted into any configuration such as a column or listing having any desired margins and positions.